Thoracic and Airway Surgery

The Thoracic and Airway Surgery Unit is part of the Paediatric Surgery Department, and emphasises the treatment of congenital pulmonary malformations of the thoracic wall through the application of minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery techniques in selected cases.

Description

Our unit coordinates a multidisciplinary team for treating paediatric airways. We have a great deal of experience in the treatment of infections due to pus accumulated in the lungs (complicated parapneumonic empyema). We coordinated the first multicentre trial published in the world, meaning a clinical trial with several research centres or hospitals and with randomised patients, to compare video-assisted thoracoscopy with treatment with fibrinolytic drugs.

The treatments we offer are the following:

Visualisation of the trachea and the bronchi for rigid and flexible bronchoscopy, for both diagnosis and treatment.

Surgical interruption of the sympathetic nervous system pathways that lead to sweat glands (thoracoscopic sympathectomy) in the treatment of excessive sweating on soles of feet and palms of hands (palmoplantar hyperhidrosis).

Treatment of Poland's syndrome, which is a rare congenital disease that affects muscular development.

Treatment of parapneumonic empyema with fibrinolytics and/or thoracoscopy, and treatment of complications.

Treatment of malformations in the thoracic wall, such as: pectus excavatum, a malformation in which the chest sinks inwards, using the Nuss and Ravitch technique, and pectus carinatum, when the chest sticks out, with orthopaedic treatment and use of the Nuss technique, as well as other chest malformations, such as sternal agenesis.

Treatment of pneumothorax, including the thoracoscopic separation (resection) of pulmonary bullae, which are spaces in the lung that contain air.

Surgical treatment of congenital pulmonary pathologies: MAQ, pulmonary sequestration, when a part of the lung is separated by a congenital deformity, lobar emphysema, bronchogenic cyst, open and thoracoscopic technique.